Birds of a Feather
Packaging Design | Illustration | Gifting
Birds of a Feather: our 2025 Festive Client Gift
Every year, we create a bespoke festive gift for our clients and partners - not as a marketing exercise, but as a genuine thank you. Something considered. Something crafted. Something that reflects how we work, and how much we value the relationships we build. For 2025, that gift took the form of a 300-piece, hand-illustrated jigsaw puzzle.
True to how we approach our work, the entire illustration was drawn by hand. It began as a pencil sketch before being carefully coloured in the Gentry palette - soft teal greens, dusty blues, muted pinks and warm buff tones.
No stock imagery. No shortcuts.
Just time, intention and craft.
At its heart, the puzzle is a metaphor. All year long, we work alongside our clients solving business and brand “puzzles” together - piece by piece, through conversation, collaboration and shared creative problem-solving. For our festive gift, we turned that idea on its head.
Instead of us solving their puzzles, we gave our clients one of ours to solve.
The illustration is titled Birds of a Feather. Inspired by South Africa’s remarkable birdlife, it celebrates difference, belonging and creative flight. Each bird is distinct -its own colour, character and rhythm - yet together they form something harmonious and whole. Much like the way we work with our clients: collaboratively, openly, and with a shared sense of purpose.
That sense of craft extends beyond the illustration itself. The puzzle is printed on a natural wooden backing. It’s housed in a tactile Wibalin-covered box, finished with a hand-tied ribbon and a die-cut “g” card. Inside, each client received a personalised thank-you note - because no two relationships, like no two puzzles, are ever the same.
Hidden subtly within the illustration is a small but meaningful detail - a “g” for Gentry, woven into the background. It acts as a quiet clue, a pointer, a reminder that partnership and guidance often help ideas come together. In this puzzle,
Gentry becomes the thread that helps the pieces find their place.
